Bill Gormley

South Jersey Democrats are actively courting two former Republican legislators to challenge freshmen GOP Assemblyman John Amodeo and Vincent Polistina in the Atlantic County-based second district next year: Paul D'Amato, a former Linwood Mayor who served in the Assembly from 2002 to 2003, and Frank Blee, who retired last year after seven terms in the Assembly. D'Amato left the Legislature after feuding with then-State Sen. Bill Gormley, and switched parties in 2006.  Blee broke with local Republicans in 2007 after losing a special election convention for State Senate to Sonny McCullough and backed Democrat James Whelan in the general election.

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

Former state Sen. Bill Gormley just had a building named after him.

At a ceremony last night, members of United Here Local 54 and the non-profit heatlh organization AtlantiCare renamed an Atlantic City facility the William L. Gormley AtlantiCare HealthPlex.   

The groups cited Gormley’s support for AtlantiCare’s Special Care Center. 

The New Jersey Legislature is often the breeding ground for gubernatorial candidates, but by 2009 it will have been 81 years since a sitting state legislator has been elected Governor -- the last time was in 1928, when Morgan Larson, a Republican State Senator from Middlesex County, won.

Over the last fifty years, only four incumbent legislators -- State Senators Malcom Forbes (1957), Wayne Dumont (1965), Raymond Bateman (1977) and James E. McGreevey (1997) -- have won gubernatorial primaries, and all four have lost their general elections.

With Gary Rose set to leave his Corzine front office post by the end of the month, there are already a few names being mentioned as possible successors as Chief of the Office of Economic Growth: state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri; Caren Franzini, the CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority; New Jersey Utilities Association President/CEO Karen Alexander.  A dark horse candidate: former Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Gormley.

The Star-Ledger reported today that Governor Jon Corzine is considering allow keno games in bars and restaurants as a way of increasing revenues, and James Whelan, who represents Atlantic County in the State Senate, has “registered his strong opposition to the plan,” the Ledger says. So here’s the question: what’s the difference between Whelan and predecessor Bill Gormley when it comes to strong opposition?

If Joe Pennacchio wins his race for the United States Senate, he would become the first sitting State Senator to go directly to the U.S. Senate since William Smathers ousted Hamilton Kean in 1936.  Smathers was elected to the State Senate from Atlantic County in 1935 and went on to unseat the one-term incumbent, whose great-grandson, Thomas Kean, Jr., is now the State Senate Minority Leader.

The last incumbent State Senator to win a statewide U.S. Senate primary was Kean, Jr. in 2006, and before that, William Ely, a Bergen County Democrat who lost an open U.S. Senate race in 1938.  The rest, including Alexander Menza (1978), Dick LaRossa (1996), Bill Gormley (2000), Diane Allen and John Matheussen (2002).

The regions are named after four exceptionally smart legislators of the past: Judge Stephen Perskie (D-Atlantic), who served in the State Assembly from 1972 to 1978 and in the Senate from 1978 to 1982; Bill Gormley (R-Atlantic), who served in the Assembly from 1978 to 1982 and in the Senate from 1982 to 2007; Stephen Wiley (D-Morris), who was a State Senator from 1974 to 1978; and Richard DeKorte (R-Bergen), an Assemblyman from 1968 to 1971.

Conservative activist Steve Lonegan isn’t surprised that Gov. Corzine’s fiscal restructuring plan is so unpopular.

A Quinnipiac poll released today puts the public’s opposition to the plan at 73%. 

The more Corzine has tried to promote his fiscal restructuring plan, Lonegan said, the more distasteful the public finds it. As he’s traveled across the state to protest it, Lonegan has found mostly sympathetic reactions.

Bill Baroni will head John McCain's presidential campaign in New JerseyState Sen. Bill Baroni has been named State Chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign in New Jersey, and Rick Mroz, a former Chief Counsel to Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, will serve as State Campaign Coordinator. Former Gov. Tom Kean is the Honorary State Chair and former Rep. Dick Zimmer is the Honorary Vice Chair.